Oluseyi Adebiyi: Making A Case For Lefties

The decision not to travel for the Sallah holiday was one I had made up my mind about long ago and I sure kept to my word – staying indoors most of the time and getting some well-deserved rest. This turned out well, until Sunday when I decided to do a bit of market visiting after service. I enjoyed every bit of my being in the market; and as I went about ticking out my laundry list of items, a particular scene occurred in a stall near me, which left me with a good mix of anger and amusement. A lady had just bought some cooking condiments, and while paying for the items, she extended the money to the seller, with her left hand. The seller refused to collect the money, insisting that the lady corrected her error and used the right hand instead, as the left hand usage meant she disrespected her. Well, the buyer would have none of it. A brief argument ensued, a few people gathered to resolve and at the end, the buyer won. As I walked away from the scene, I kept asking myself, “What really is it about the left hand?”

In trying to answer this question, I had to take my mind to my early years. Growing up in a closed community in Lagos, I knew of friends and siblings who were born south-paws (lefties), but were eventually converted to be right-handed. My younger brother for instance actually started out left-handed, with his typical left-side activities including eating, writing, playing football among others. While it was easy for my parents to eventually force his hand use to the right hand side, leaving him with a funny hand-writing in his early years, his leg were not easily converted as he currently plays football with his left leg. Asides my younger brother I had many other friends who were forced to change their hand-usage. While there seems not to appear any harm done, as they apparently didn’t turn out badly, one is perhaps left to wonder how they would have turned out if they had been allowed a free rein.

Interesting statistics indicates that 15% of the total population of the world is left-handed. These statistics further alleges much more; that left-handers are more likely to be geniuses, left-handed men are, on average 15% richer than right-handed men for those who attended college, and 26% richer if they graduated. Left-handed people tend to be more creative and entrepreneurial than right-handed people – 4 of the 5 original designers of the Mac computer were left handed.

Beyond these statistics, I have every reason to love left-handed people and sometimes wished I was one. I remember back in primary school, primary 4 to be precise, my seat partner was left-handed and for the duration of that session, he more than anything else made me wish I was. This young man was one of the best artists I had come across up until that point in time. His hand-writing could pass for a calligraphic work and he combined all this with a super brain. Fast-forward to today and I have met the most amazing left-handed people ever, with some of them combining it with delightful left-legs (remembering Dapo Kehinde, of the Ijanikin fame, tearing defences apart with his super doper left leg).

While scientists have argued that the hand-leg co-ordination/use is a function of the dominant side of the brain we use, i.e right-handed people use their right brain and left-handed folks use the left brain, this has still not served as enough justification for the right hand or nothing folks.

If statistics and science still does serve as a good educator, perhaps images of world renowned leaders and personalities strutting the use of their left-hands would work. Images of the likes of Bill Clinton, Barrack Obama and our own Babatunde Fashola penning documents with their left hands is often used by team left-handed. Just maybe the next parent wishing for his/her child taking either of their places would see that as a good enough reason not to convert their hand of use when growing up.

Inasmuch as this may not be a matter for legislation, we need to do more for ourselves, especially as Nigerians, in accepting people’s choice of hand use and not reading undue meanings to such. I remain right-handed but always wishing I was a leftie. Only if wishes were horses…

About Oluseyi Adebiyi

Seyiakano lives to write and writes to live. He studied Agricultural Economics at Obafemi Awolowo University and currently works with a financial services provider in Abuja. His interests are as diverse as they come. He often tweets from @seyiakano, IGs as same and blogs periodically at www.santachronicles.wordpress.com"

I love this write up. Wish my mum could be reading this right now. I can remember when I was in nursery one my mum and my then class teacher dealt with me all because I was using my left hand to write. Via serious beatings I was forced to change and now my hand writing is as terrible as hell. It pains me alot whenever I remember that. But still I can’t do anything with my right and or right leg apart from writing with my right hand. I wish I could switch back to using my left hand. Cos I feel that is affecting me in a way.

This topic is very dear to my heart. To be honest all the people in my life that are lefties are just mind blowing “brainies”. That being said my parents succeeded in making my sister write with her right hand but couldn’t prevent her from doing every other thing with the left hand. if my sister sweeps with left, you can lick the floor or if she even peels an orange with left or even pounds yam with that left, we the right handed will just hide our faces.I tell my sister and friends who are lefties all the time that God kind of made us know that he spent time making some people special when he made them.I love all my lefties joor. You are special.

I was JUST having this convo with my boss this morning. He’s left-handed, and I was telling him about how I was switched to the right in Nigeria as a child. Apparently, the practice is not unique to us. He told me his grandmother grew up in the South, and people there were not allowed to be left-handed back then.

What that buyer experienced is the everyday story of my life!
Just last week , I decided to take the BRT bus to work and when I tried to pay for my ticket, the ticketing officer ignored me for almost 5 minutes. I was livid!! He insisted that I should use my right hand to give the money to him instead of my left hand and went further to tell me ” Madam, agbalagba niyin, e de nlo left hand (Madam, you are an adult and you’re making use of your left hand)”
Luckily for me, his boss overheard him and told him off. I told him to please cut off his left hand and make use of only his right hand since he hates it so much.

Good and very educative write-up. Right or left, which one is not a useful hand anyway? Is it not when you have the two that you differentiate? Go ask people with just one hand or those with no hand at all. My son is a left handed person and he has a lovely hand writing, apart from this, he is also very creative. Thank God I didn’t give in to people who wanted to change him when he was much younger. Let us learn to appreciate God’s wonders in people and have it in mind that we all cannot be the same. Shallom

my dad called me last week to wish me a happy lefties day. I was pleasantly surprised – this is the same man (along with his wife) who tried all they could to make me stop using my left hand. Thankfully I had an oyinbo teacher back then in naija – she told them it could affect me mentally.

I remember growing up as a kid they would smack my left hand in school and my mum would always come tell them they should leave me and let me be. Thankfully my parents were enlightened on stuff like that and did not bring in “tradition” or force me to change.
I still get the occasional frowns/stares or the “why are you using your left hand question” or “why are you left handed” and i just look blank and act like say na breeze pass for my ear. lol

I totally love this article…Hopefully the newer generations would learn to allow their children be whoever they want to be without being biased on the “left-hand culture” especially among the Yoruba’s… I have some brilliant leftie friends and I still hope I will have a leftie as a child.

Very interesting post, when my parents realized my younger brother was left handed, my dad did everything within his power to force him to change it but the boy just couldn’t and he eventually had to accept him as he is, I love lefties, I think they are special and I still pray for my future husband to be a leftie cos they are scientifically proven to be more sensitive, emotionally aware and open than the typical male.

That being said, I just have to point out that there is really a deep rooted problem with our culture and tradition and I pray to God almighty that it will come to an end one day. The African ESP Nigerian culture is very archaic barbaric and worrisome and looking at how deeply it has eaten into our people makes my heart bleed, what we accept and believe in the name of tradition is unbelievable, we need a revolution in our minds, a serious reorientation. Smh, I’m sorry for the rant but this is unacceptable, we have to give our kids a better future and do away with most of this foolery called traditions!

Here is the infamous “younger brother” who has coped with funny hand writing for years. I still wish I was left a leftie! Well, thanks to my left foot, I have been able to constantly relish the pleasure of being a leftie, on the pitch. Nice one bro!

I really just think it’s a culture thing with us in Nigeria. The westerners don’t have a problem with whichever hand you are using. I dare say we are also experiencing a change towards the western world thinking. Our generation in fact might just be able to stop the stigma altogether.
I for one and I’ll say same will go for many of my friends will not force our children who come out naturally left handed to use the right hand,

There is even a whole Wikipedia post about it. The discrimination is seen the world over, and has gone on for eons. It is not particular to Nigerians or even Africans. The word sinister has its root in the Latin word for left.

I was actually left handed, but my mum made sure i converted to right handedness. To be honest i still do somethings with the left hand., things that nobody corrected.
One day i asked someone why the left hand was regarded with such disdain, He said that the left hand is used to wipe the buttocks.
I was flabbergasted to say the least.

I wish my ex hubby could see this article. Our daughter loves to use her left hand since she she started griping ( she’s now two) he’s always fond of correcting her even used to tell me off for not correcting her. I was like what the big deal. After all lefties are mostly the brilliant ones since we broke up. I left my daughter to feel free with whatever hand she’s comfortable with Jare.

I rep team ambidextrous. Don’t know how it happened coz I was predominantly left and no one tried to stop me but I grew up using both hands even tho I use left more.

A few days ago, a colleague called me aside and said’i know you wouldn’t think of it as anything, but this is Africa! Yesterday, you gave something to a customer with ur left hand and he was soo infuriated. Just try to change.’ All I said was thank you, but I can’t get over why ppl are so particular about the left hand. I simply tell them my left is ur right and vice versa.
And yes, changing kids from one hand to the other has an effect. True story! My cousin, a chronic leftie was put thru the painful process of using his right. After sometime, he began to stutter. He was taken to the hospital where the doctor confirmed nothing was wrong but asked if he had a habit he was forced out of. Long story short, his parents let him return to his left hand and his speech returned to normalcy.
It is now a big taboo in my family to disturb lefties! Yaaay

Psssssssh! Where do I start from. I am a leftie. No one tried to change that, I think they got tired with my brother.
So living my life/ handing things to my family wasn’t any issue for me. But The Lord knows I have been embarrassed so many times. There was this day I went with my mum to the filling station, She handed my the money to give the attendant, he refused to collect it, I felt so bad cos he was spitting a whole lot of nonsense, it turned into a yelling match. My mum was so embarrassed she didn’t know how to react. I threw the money on the floor for him to pick.
Is it about the overzealous colleague at work? A Northerner and a Muslim.
These days I have configured my mind to hand out stuff with my right. I can’t deal with people’s madness anymore. That way everyone is happy.

U need to see stares I get when I get down to eat amala in public, I stare right back at them, my parents tried but luckily late Turaki Saraki who was a practicing doctor then at suru lere told them to let me be, learnt I said I was going back to school cos my nursery teacher beat me. My younger brother is left handed, my nephew is too… My nephew started stammering when he was forced to change, till he was allowed back to his left hand. I proudly rep lefties!

Thank God my mother dealt with the oversabi teacher in nursery school who attempted to force me to use my right hand (they succeeded with my older brother years earlier without her knowledge).

I get the funny stares and rude comments from market people (women especially) and I’ve learnt to just jokingly apologize and tell them i’m left handed and in some cases, I return their goods if they refuse to accept money from my left hand (only one woman has collected her goods back, other complain, but take the money anyways :)).

Going to college in the US made it a lot more normal to be left handed, there were desks for lefties, scissors, sharpeners, rules, knives, and many other things right handed people take for granted.

For me the hardest part about being left handed is having to watch and learn how to do something from a right handed person, I can’t explain it, but it just doesn’t register in my brain and gets really confusing. I remember wanting to learn how to sew as a child (i wanted to make clothes for my dolls :)), my mum’s friend was a tailor and she tried to show me how to cut fabric and I just couldn’t do it cos the scissors was the other way for me and everything just didn’t look or feel right. I gave up after several attempts. Same with learning how to serve in tennis, the instructor was right handed and I just couldn’t figure it out. It wasn’t until I was much older that I realized why I always seemed so confused. Oh well!

One of the things that first attracted me to hubby was that he was left handed. I have always found that to be sexy!!! can’t explain why. But he gets super self conscious about eating swallow in public because of this. I keep encouraging him that he has nothing to be ashamed of as many many well known successful individuals are all left handed, included the current POTUS and Mark Zuckerberg to mention a few.

My mum took me to the doc when I was a kid to complain about my left handedness and to seek advice on a possible change, guess what? The doc is a lefty!…….and his advice….let her be!
Being lefty was the attraction for my husby wen we had our first contact